Posts Tagged ‘books’

You guys are probably wondering where your regular dose of TH goodness is at today? Well, in case you’ve been ignoring the blogs for the last few weeks, today is the day that I kick off a week of guest strips. The reason? Cami and I are going to be moving into a new house on Wednesday, so my attention is currently somewhat… fractured.

But you guys are lucky, because I have a wonderful assortment of guest strips to get you through the week. In fact, I’m running a guest strip EVERY DAY this week. So, really – everyone wins.

Today’s guest strip comes from a good friend. Someone I got to know quite well from hanging out in the THorum. His name is Beefy and he’s super cool.

I feel bad because this is a guest comic Beefy made for me AGES ago and I kept promising to put it up. For whatever reason, things didn’t work out the last couple of times I ran guest strips. Mostly I think it had to do with math. Meaning, if I had run his strip, I would have one day of a new week with a guest strip and the remaining two days with new content from yours truly. And since I’m really anal about that kind of thing, I never ran the comic. Stupid math!

Anyway, I’m making up for it today and running his comic FIRST!

Everyone needs to swing by his site Beefyness.com. He’s got a bunch of cool stuff for you to check out. A great blog, a forum and a bunch of really funny comics. But most notably, Beefy writes songs – rap songs – and each of them are excellent. You can download the whole of his Whitsican EP right now – but of course you can always help support him by sending donations.

Don’t you think it’s worth your time and money to check out the efforts of an extremely nice fellow who put togethera songs about the THorum? I do!

In my previous post, I mentioned that there was no surprise to watching the bratty children of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory being dispatched one by one. Pointing out the only exit that differed was that of Veruca Salt and her coveting of a highly-trained squirrel instead of a gold egg-laying goose.

People have since pointed out to me that the squirrels were in the original Roald Dahl book – of which I was not aware, because I never read the original book.

And before you jump down my throat for not reading the book, remember that I am a ∗movie∗ fan first.

I’m reminded of a quote from comedian Jim Gaffigan. “Whenever someone tells me they liked the book better than the movie, here’s what I always say: ‘What I enjoyed about the movie? No reading.‘”

Seriously, guys. You should have been hanging out with me yesterday. I was on Cloud 9. As I was driving to pick up the books from the frieght agency that was storing them on their docks, I swear the air was sweeter and my car stereo was pumping tunes more clearly. Flipping through this book… to have it in my hands… WOW. Big accomplishment for me. You have no idea.

Sincere thanks to each and every one of you who pre-ordered a copy. You helped make my dream come true! Now that I have this first book under my belt, I hope to do "Theater Hopper: Year Two" very soon. I’d love for it to be out by Christmas, but it really depends how well "Theater Hopper: Year One" sells first.

On that note, if you were holding off on pre-ordering a copy of "Theater Hopper: Year One," these pictures are the proof that – yes – the book IS in fact REAL. You should order one soon. We’ve already burned through half of our first print run and I’m taking a BUNCH of these books to Wizard World Chicago. So there might be very less very soon!

I can’t tell you how excited I am. Cami and I have put together a great plan to get this book in front of many people as possible. You guys have helped us meet the first goal. Now we’re going to start trying to get press for the book – both local and national – and see if we can’t push things a little farther in regards to Theater Hopper’s overall visibility and success.

Some of you aren’t going to like this comic because it doesn’t reference anything specifically movie-related. Some of you will be annoyed that you have to read Monday’s comic to even understand the reason why Tom is in a library in the first place.

I say, “I don’t care. This one is for me.” Sometimes it’s just fun to do something random and paint Tom as more stupid than usual. “Too stupid to live,” I believe is the phrase.

Hey, if the writers of The Office can have Michael drive into a lake because a GPS in a rental car told him to, I can get away with having Tom insist literature come with an A.V. option.

Not much else to report from Casa de Brazelton except today is my last day at my 9 to 5 job. I performed as a web designer for an insurance agency for the last 5 and a half years. I found another opportunity doing web work for a larger insurance company and I start that job on the 24th.

What does this mean to you? Maybe not as much as it does to me. Admittedly, I’ve been stressed the last week. But I’m taking some time off before starting the new gig and that means a site redesign I’ve been kicking around since last October might finally see the light of day before the end of the month. Theater Hopper will become my 9 to 5 for the next week. So in addition to dedicating myself to the redesign (which includes integration with WordPress, I might add), I’ll also be working on a few DVD reviews to post here to the front page. So keep your eyes peeled for those!

Okay, this was the post that you were meant to read this morning, but the one I couldn’t get to until I put Henry down for his afternoon nap.

Regarding Transformers, that can wait. I’m going to be talking about it all week, so there’s no need to dive neck-deep into it now.

Although, I must confess today’s strip is autobiographical. I’m less interested in seeing the movie than I am in finding out how they wrote Shia LaBeouf’s hand injury into the storyline. I anticipate that it will be richly satisfying.

Anyway… onto business.

As you know, a few weeks ago I lost my job. This came at a bad time for a lot of reasons, but one among the myriad of reasons is that I was about to send my registration for Artist Alley at Wizard World Chicago, August 6 – 9. Losing my job halted that action in it’s tracks.

Although Theater Hopper is its own entity and has its own money, I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to attend a convention when I might have to dip into that money once my severance is gone.

I won’t bore you with the mental tug-of-war I put myself in the middle of. But, eventually, when I talked to Cami about it, she didn’t see where there was a problem and told me to go for it. Bless her for being as supportive as she is.

So, long story short, I’m going. I’m sharing a table with Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey, hanging out with the guys from Digital Pimp Online and hopefully selling some new merchandise.

Ah, but there’s the rub. I don’t exactly HAVE any new merchandise.

People who pre-ordered Theater Hopper: Year Three know this. I’ve been sitting on a finished draft of that book for months, but I haven’t had the money to have it printed up. Pre-orders stalled and I’m still trying to raise funds.

I thought I would bolster that effort by designing a new shirt – Spoiler Alert! – in hopes that the revenue from the sale of those shirts would help bridge the gap on the funds I need to print the book.

That didn’t happen, either.

I’m not pointing fingers at anyone but myself. In all honesty, I haven’t been talking about Year Three or the new shirt. So, beyond the intifada announcement, why would I expect there to be any orders? I haven’t been talking about it, so people haven’t been ordering. It’s really that simple.

Well, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to kick my plan back into gear and I’m trying to push the Spoiler Alert! tees hard before I go to Wizard World Chicago. I’m confident that this design will be a big seller in Chicago and I want to get this shirt to the printer before I leave for the convention.

With your help, I can raise the money I need to get the shirts printed up, take to Chicago and produce the profit I need to put Year Three back on track for publication.

To help us with our goal, I’ve created this handy bar graph:

As you can see, I need a minimum of 50 shirt orders before July 31 to make this work. If I can sell more than that, great. If the sale of merchandise extends beyond the Spoiler Alert! shirt and into the Spoiler 1 and 2 shirts, the Theater Hopper: Year One or Year Two books… that’d be great as well! Every little bit helps! What’s important is that we inch that bar to the left as far as we can before July 31.

I’ve been gun shy about this kind of promotion since Theater Hopper: Year Two came out in the fall of 2007. Well, I can’t afford to sit on my hands any longer. I’ve set a goal for myself and I need your help! So let’s see what we can do about racking up some pre-orders!!!

As always, I appreciate your support, patience and enthusiasm. Thanks again and I will talk to you soon!

Sincere apologies for the comic being late this week. As I explained on the Theater Hopper Facebook page, last week was… not the best. I pretty much spent the entirty of last week preparing for a presentation in my Leadership and Human Capital Development course as part of my Masters in Communication Leadership. I was in class all of Friday night and most of Saturday.

Then, on Sunday, we were out of the house nearly all day showing it to prospective buyers. One couple was traveling from Dallas, Texas to look at our house and was supposed to be there at 5:00 PM. We got a call at 5:30 saying that they were still on the runway in Dallas.

But they loved the photos of our house online and really, really wanted to see our home that evening before they interviewed for some hospital positions the next day. We had been hanging out at my in-laws and said we would wait. So we waited. And waited. By the time 7:30 rolled around we said, “You know what? We have two small children. It’s way past their bedtime and we have work tomorrow. You’ll have to come look another time.”

By the time we got home and got both kids to bed it was past 9:00 PM and I was wiped out. There was no way I was going to get a comic done that evening. So I ended up working on Monday’s comic last night instead. I appreciate your patience and understanding.

So let’s talk about this comic, huh?

I’ve been giving Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World static since June when the first trailer came out. A bunch of my contemporaries were wetting their pants and I couldn’t understand what all the hub-bub was about. My opinion at the time (and to this day) is that the trailers don’t do a good job of communicating why the uninitiated should even care.

Then I read the books.

It was a long time coming. People have been telling me for (what seemed like years) that I should be reading the Scott Pilgrim books. But I’m generally very bad about taking advice from others when it comes to movies, TV, music or books.

That’s not to say I’m not receptive to suggestion. I just don’t assign a lot of priority to it.

For example, I had friends telling me for years that I should watch Arrested Development, that it’s humor was right up my alley. But I could never get into it when it was on TV. I felt like I couldn’t understand the long-form narrative and all of the inside jokes. It wasn’t until I bought all three seasons on DVD that I came to the light.

People told me for years to listen to Death Cab For Cutie, that I would really enjoy the songs and melodies and that it was right up my alley. It wasn’t until after I heard “Transatlantacism” in the series finale of Six Feet Under that I dove into the band’s catalog and really started to enjoy their music. Now I own all of their albums.

Anyway, the same was true with Scott Pilgrim. People told me for years to buy the books, that I would enjoy the video game references and irreverent, innocent and kinetic art style of Brian Lee O’Malley. I put it off and put it off until I noticed that Amazon was selling the first 5 books for $9.00 a piece and I decided to jump in with both feet.

While I found the first book to be a little laborious, I eventually fell in love with the Scott Pilgrim universe as I eagerly anticipated the release of the 6th book in advance of the movie. The wait was almost unbearable. I had to know how the story ended! I was completely hooked.

Rewatching the trailer, I now understand what everyone was so excited about. I think director Edgar Wright has done an expert job of capturing all of the little comic book flourishes that make the books feel so alive without delivering the film into caricature. I’m hoping that the fight sequences are significant enough to move Michael Cera out of his “adorable dork” phase and into something more substantial. If nothing else, the soundtrack should be pretty good, right?

One thing that bugs me about the movie, though, is that Ramona Flowers doesn’t really look like someone who is worth fighting seven evil exes over. In fact, she looks kind of dirty. Maybe it’s because I’m not really attracted to girls with day-glo hairstyles, but do you have any idea what Mary Elizabeth Winstead – the actress who plays Flowers – looks like?

She looks like this:

Look at that picture and then look at this picture of Winstead as Ramona Flowers:

SHE LOOKS LIKE A DAMN MUPPET!

Seriously, folks. That stupid wig is like putting a Rollie Fingers mustache on the Mona Lisa. You took an attractive girl and screwed her up. YOU MANIACS! YOU SCREWED IT UP! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

*ahem*

…but I’m sure I’ll get over it.

Anyway, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World hits theaters this Friday. Be sure to check back later this week for some exciting news related to the movie. I don’t want to jinx it, but there may be a contest in the near future that you might want to participate in.

Since I’m only updating once a week now, it would benefit you to follow me on Twitter or Facebook. That’s probably where I’ll announce the big news just before driving everyone back here for the details. So stay tuned!

What about you guys? Excited at all for Scott Pilgrim. I’ve talked to the die-hards, I’ve talked to a few converts and I’ve talked to some hold-outs. If you’re still on the outs with Scott Pilgrim and his crew, what gives? No interest in reading the books? Think the movie looks too much like a cartoon? Leave your comments below!